The demodulation scheme described in application Ser. No. 09/114,948 (Farrow 31-29-3-7-2) provides for the receipt of quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) analog signals. These analog signals are converted to digital representations by an analog-to-digital converter and demodulated to yield digital representations of in-phase and quadrature components of the analog QAM signal application Ser. No. 09/114,948 (Farrow 31-29-3-7-2) also describes the interpolation of the digital representations to create a sample stream having a frequency related to a desired baud rate. After decimation and filtering, these samples are provided, at the desired baud rate, to an equalizer. The samples provided to the equalizer are in the form of multibit samples, such as, for example, 10-bit samples.
It is preferable that the 10-bit samples provided to the equalizer cover most of the dynamic range of the equalizer. If some of the samples have a value outside the dynamic range of the equalizer, saturation will occur, resulting in a loss of information. Conversely, if the samples consistently have values less than the dynamic range of the equalizer, then the resolution is not optimized.